‘Francophonie’ in turbulent times

“Although the term was coined over a century ago, “Francophonie” has become associated with France’s attempt to maintain (or project) its influence in various parts of the world – but especially in Africa, where it has often been perceived as the “soft” corollary of “Françafrique” – even though it was first resurrected by Léopold Sedar Senghor.

Alain Mabanckou, the first African writer to be invited to lecture at the Collège de France, shares with most of his peers some serious misgivings about the incestuous connections between the “cultural” and “realpolitik” dimensions of France’s policies.” Edouard Bustin.

In his speech to “Africa’s youth” in Ouagadougou, last November, France’s president Emmanuel Macron made a big deal of his plans to promote the French language around the world, with advice from African thinkers and others. Two weeks later, he invited Alain Mabanckou—the celebrated Congolese novelist and essayist—to take part.

But Mabanckou—who divides his time between Paris and Los Angeles, where he is a professor at UCLA—said non. In an open letter to Macron that ran on January 15 in the French magazine L’Obs, he rejected the whole venture. The French language is not under threat, he argues. Instead, La Francophonie—the Paris-based organization with 57 member countries, roughly equivalent to the Commonwealth—and other initiatives predicated on shared French language serve France’s political interests and those of African repressive elites.